Good morning, and we have a fine puzzle from Hurley today, perhaps towards the easier end of his range if my time of 8:43 is anything to go by.
There are a few places where a little more than average care is needed – 10A in particular needs to be read carefully to get the answer the right way round – but nothing I think that should cause too much gnashing of teeth, and the whole puzzle is a very nice example of the QC-setter’s art.
How did everyone else get on?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (abc)* indicates an anagram of abc, and strike-through-text shows deletions.
| Across | |
| 1 | Diplomacy that actually changes things at the outset (4) |
| TACT – Initial letters (given by “at the outset”) of That Actually Changes Things.
This was a complete write-in for me as the first place I worked, nearly 50 years ago now, had a multiple choice style annual review form where one was marked from 1 to 6, and one of the entries was “Shows tact and diplomacy”. It became a bit of a catchphrase and ever since I have always associated the two. |
|
| 4 | Dry arias broadcast — a mess! (8) |
| DISARRAY – (dry arias)*, with the anagram indicator being “broadcast”. | |
| 8 | Challenging attitude of French guy getting married (8) |
| DEFIANCE – DE (“of” in French) + FIANCÉ (guy or man getting married).
This was my LOI, as I fixed on “groom” for man getting married and could not shake it off. One could argue that a fiancé is a man who is engaged and has intentions (sometimes fairly vague) of future nuptials, rather than someone actually at their wedding, and these days engagements can last a very long time (and don’t always lead to a wedding anyway), but it is clear what Hurley means and wants us to find. |
|
| 9 | Mixer also dancing just a bit (4) |
| SODA – A hidden, in alSO DAncing, with the hidden indicator being “just a bit”. | |
| 10 | Kitty’s circular route on return (4) |
| POOL – LOOP (circular route) backwards (given by “on return”). And nothing to do with my esteemed fellow blogger, as the kitty here is a fund of money for communal use, often in a pub.
Doing this as an across clue before I had looked at the down clues, and so without any checkers, I needed to read the clue very carefully to make sure I put in Pool not Loop. |
|
| 11 | Sadly curses about pair of learners who could be having a row (8) |
| SCULLERS – (curses)*, with the anagram indicator being “sadly”, containing LL (pair of learners).
Row rhyming with mow, meaning move a boat with oars, not Row rhyming with how, meaning an argument. But if a pair of learner scullers get in each other’s way too much, they could end up having a row/argument too. |
|
| 12 | Yankee means to change sycophant (3,3) |
| YES MAN – Y (Yankee) + (means)*, with the anagram indicator being “to change” | |
| 14 | Once more a fuss principally about silence (6) |
| AFRESH – A (from the clue) + F (Fuss “principally”, ie first letter) + RE (about) + SH (call for silence).
A four-part IKEA clue for a six-letter answer. Impressive! |
|
| 16 | Separate two notes like some workers (4-4) |
| PART-TIME – PART (separate) + TI + ME (two notes in the Sol-fa scale). The Sol-fa scale is very popular with setters because most of the notes can be spelled in multiple ways, giving great flexibility. Me for example is often, perhaps even usually, spelled mi. | |
| 18 | Card game photo (4) |
| SNAP – A DD. But now we all have our cameras on our mobile phones, does anyone actually call them snaps any more? | |
| 19 | Time unchanged after reflection (4) |
| NOON – A palindrome, unchanged whether you read it forwards or backwards (ie “on reflection”). And something of a chestnut I think. | |
| 20 | Rude mischievous child to lie outrageously (8) |
| IMPOLITE – IMP (mischievous child) + (to lie)*, with the anagram indicator being “outrageously”.
I read an article recently that said that “mischievous” was one of the most frequently mispronounced words in the language, with a very high percentage of people saying “mischievious”. I think the outright most mispronounced word was secretary, which is apparently invariably pronounced seckertary. |
|
| 22 | Supporter’s poster in this place extremely neat (8) |
| ADHERENT – AD (poster) + HERE (in this place) + NT (“extremely”, ie first and last letters of, NeaT). | |
| 23 | Thread story that goes on? (4) |
| YARN – A DD. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Impressive article — our group very much entertained to begin with (7) |
| AWESOME – A (article) + WE (our group) + SO (very) + ME (first letters of Much Entertained, given by “to begin with”).
Another 4-part IKEA clue. Awesome is a word that now has a very wide range of meanings, and the younger generation use it far more than I do, but “impressive” is one of the more traditional meanings. |
|
| 3 | Describing group ignoring start of business hearing (5) |
| TRIAL – TRI |
|
| 4 | Academic’s sign of approval on way up (3) |
| DON – NOD (sign of approval) all reversed (“on the way up”, as this is a down clue). | |
| 5 | Guess specification you delivered after the expected time (9) |
| SPECULATE – SPEC (standard shortening of specification) + U (sounds like you, the homophone indicator being “delivered”) + LATE (after the expected time).
I think that should be “after the scheduled/agreed time” rather than “after the expected time”. One of my brothers is so reliably late for absolutely everything that we may agree dinner at 7.00, but when he turns up at more like 7.25, that is far from “after the expected time”, and in fact if anything it is before I was expecting him. |
|
| 6 | Person in charge protecting street thief (7) |
| RUSTLER – ST (street) included in RULER (person in charge), the inclusion indicator being “protecting”. | |
| 7 | Reptile, more miserable, losing head (5) |
| ADDER – |
|
| 11 | Tricky visit seen to need adjustment (9) |
| SENSITIVE – (visit seen)*, with the anagram indicator being “to need adjustment”. Tricky in the sense of “A tricky/sensitive subject, a difficult subject to discuss”.
Initially I thought Tricky was the anagram indicator here, and I was left wondering how to get the meaning sensitive out of “to need adjustment”. But then the penny dropped and I read the clue the other way round. |
|
| 13 | Winning move securing popular English afternoon show (7) |
| MATINEE – MATE (ie checkmate, the winning move in chess) including (ie “securing”) IN (popular + E (English). | |
| 15 | First portion’s lead time? I’m not sure (7) |
| STARTER – STAR (lead of a show or cast of actors) + T (time) + ER (I’m not sure). Starter as in first course or helping of food at a meal. | |
| 17 | Reportedly permitted in a whisper? No (5) |
| ALOUD – I think this is best described as a somewhat unusual DD, or perhaps even “double cryptic”. The first part is relatively straightforward, as ALOUD sounds like ALLOWED (permitted), with the homophone indicator being “reportedly”. But the second part of the clue is open to a couple of different parsings: it could be “ALOUD is not a whisper” (though for a whisper to be of any use it has to be at least audible, even if not fortissimo); or it could be A (from the clue) + LOUD (not a whisper).
Whatever Hurley intended, the answer he wants us to find is clear, and I will leave it there and wait to be told by others which of my two suggestions is correct. If either of them are … On edit: A third possibility has been suggested by Kevin Gregg and Quadrophenia (first two blog entries) and I think it is the best of the three. |
|
| 18 | Absurd window feature — why you might say? (5) |
| SILLY – SILL (window feature, as in window-sill) + Y (sounds like Why, with the homophone indicator being “you might say”). | |
| 21 | Fondle cat, maybe (3) |
| PET – A DD, with the second definition being a DBE, given by “maybe”. | |
I was slowed down some by SPECULATE, AFRESH, & STARTER. I would say the definition of ALOUD is ‘in a whisper’ not ‘a whisper’; ODE, for instance, defines it as ‘audibly; not silently or in a whisper’. 7:15
Thank you, that works – and probably better than either of my attempts.
I agree, a fairly gentle offering today. I found the anagram for 4a DISARRAY surprisingly difficult to solve until a few checkers were in place and it came to me. SCULLERS was another that I had to think about to make sure I had the right anagrist and the right meaning of ‘row’, but not for long. AFRESH, a four-part assembly in a six-letter answer! Had the same thought about the anagrind for SENSITIVE, initially wondering how it meant ‘needing adjustment’. Agree with Kevin on ALOUD, just ‘in a whisper? NO’. Fun quickie. COD to AWESOME.
Thanks Cedric and setter.
11 minutes, taken over the 10 minute line by 2dn necessitating several return visits each time a new checker arrived.
8.05
DISARRAY also flummoxed me for longer than it should. And “first portion” as a definition didn’t come easily checkers notwithstanding.
Nice puzzle and thanks for the blog Cedric
7:29 for the solve! Enjoyed ripping through that. I don’t think it was necessarily easy but I enjoyed it. Slowed in the SE corner where I BTPed AFRESH and half-parsed STARTER (LOI) before doing it properly postsolve.
Thanks to Cedric and Hurley
Great time #5
16:51 Couldn’t speculate afresh and defiance was a trial. Half parsed effort in the end thinking tribunal as business hearing ignoring a bit in the middle which gave me trial, defiance followed soon after. I tend to build first and look at the instructions later when it comes to IKEA or other flat packed merchandise so it took me a long time to get afresh; couldn’t get mum and ado out of my head.
Enjoyable solve and excellent blog. Many thanks.
I seem to have found this more difficult than our blogger and some of the early commenters. There was nothing particularly tricky in hindsight so I must have just been having an off day.
Lots to enjoy and as usual with ‘trickier’ puzzles plenty of nice PDMs along the way.
Started with TACT and finished with ALOUD in 9.21.
Thanks to Cedric and Hurley.
TACT went straight in. 4a didn’t immediately materialise, so I looked at 4d. NOD came up and DISARRAY went in. PET was LOI. 7:53. Thanks Hurley and Cedric.
Approximately 8.38. Timer still not showing when the completed confirmation appears.
I’ve fairly consistently been between 5 and 6 minutes this week, and I await Starstruck downgrading my Quick Snitch average of 4:41 as a result. Again today I was breeze-blocked by my last two clues. Once I unravelled my COD I biffed my LOI. Thanks to Cedric for unravelling that IKEA construction for me in his usual meticulous blog – and of course to Hurley for his very fine puzzle.
FOI TACT
LOI AWESOME
COD DEFIANCE
TIME 5:14
I quite enjoyed this and I share (but won’t repeat) the queries and difficulties of early posters. My slowest time of the week, though.
I enjoyed ADHERENT, DEFIANCE, AWESOME, and SCULLERS.
AFRESH and STARTER were my LOsI.
Thanks to both.
Nice straightforward puzzle today. LOI AWESOME. Great blog Cedric – I find I’m getting increasingly irritated when words are mispronounced, and mutter corrections to people on the radio who should know better!
I agree wholeheartedly about mispronunciation on TV and Radio – by people who really should know better. My current bêtes noires are nukular for nuclear and prescribe instead of proscribe (some very senior politicians don’t know the difference!).
Susie Dent the lexicographer has learned to live with it, according to this recent item in The Times. I’m sorry as I respect her, but I think she’s wrong. Slippery slope, and all that.
My pet hate aside from mispronunciation is the number of highly educated people, authors, journalists and broadcasters etc who say “I” when it should be “me”.
I am absolutely with you on that!
The newest pronoun solecism is saying “yourself” when a simple “you” is fine. Most prevalent on The Traitors and also now endemic in call centres.
Sadly, I just find I’m getting increasingly irritated. It’s an age thing I’m told. 😕
😂
After a quick start, I didn’t find this easy in some parts. Needed a series of PDMs for AFRESH, SILLY, LOI STARTER, and in NW AWESOME, POOL, and DEFIANCE (COD).
My Ikea brain took a while to get in gear this morning.
Also liked SCULLERS, SPECULATE.
Many thanks, Cedric.
Yes, among other things, it worries me that cockney announcers can’t pronounce ‘t’s at the end of words.
And am very stuffy about Fewer and Less.
DNF – and as Mr S has made clear, needlessly so. 😔 We seem to be sliding backwards.
Lovely offering and a truly excellent blog (thank you Mr S). We, however, were beaten by DEFIANCE – stuck as we both were on groom and unable to shift. Thankfully our now adult children are not about to levy a gently smiling charge of ‘inflexible old people’.
Bring on Monday’s! Thank you Hurley and again, Mr CS. Happy weekend, all.
Thank you for your kind words on the blog. But I’m tempted to say “Do call me Cedric” – everyone else does!
Curate’s egg for me. Ten unassisted.
I think some of my meds fog my brain sometimes.
Thanks setter and blogger.
Enjoy the weekend all.
DNF and very disappointing.
I made up the word METIENNE for M (married) + ETIENNE French guy.
Could not assemble AFRESH, and could not think of another four letter card game starting with S after STUD and SOLO.
Poor showing.
I hear FEB-U-ARY all the time for February.
Yes, I explained to a woman that she had written FEBRUARY wrongly on a notice outside her shop. She showed DEFIANCE and disbelief, then looked it up and sulkily added the extra R.
Got to agree with you on FEB-U-ARY, Merlin – nails down a blackboard!
Personally, I take umbrage at JEWEL-RY and CUTTLE-RY, but I have to let Mrs H off 😉
I like your word, metienne. We need a meaning for it. 🙂
Dnf…
Everything after 14 mins apart from 8ac “Defiance” which stubbornly refused to come. Frustrating as it’s fairly obvious.
The rest were a good mix of different clues.
FOI – 1ac “Tact”
LOI – 8ac “Designee” (incorrect)
COD – 11ac “Scullers”
Thanks as usual!
Saturdays continue for you …
To be honest, I think they’re getting better. There was a time where I literally couldn’t seem to complete any Saturday puzzle, but I’m probably finishing more than I’m not now.
Coming up to the half year and my usual collation of stats, so I will peruse the numbers and see if my gut feel is correct.
Found this much gentler than the past week’s QCs which have been extending my coffee breaks quite considerably – no bad thing of course! Last two in were DEFIANCE (tried ‘deviance’ to start with but it didn’t really work on any level) closely followed by LOI AWESOME. The main hold up for me was STARTER which rather embarrassingly needed and alphatrawl…. Great blog Cedric, thank you. Thanks Hurley.
12:2o
No real difficulties here though held up briefly by biffing impudent instead of IMPOLITE, LOI DEFIANCE.
Nice to have a straightforward one after a morning sorting out the logistics of a 1968 Mini running out of oil last night 25 miles away … No hold ups except LOI & COD DEFIANCE, where I wanted M for married to be in there and had to have a trawl to sort out.
All done in 06:04 for a Red Letter Day. Lots of fun, many thanks Hurley and Cedders.
Pretty straight-forward today, just had to stare at part time and defiance for a while. COD speculate.
I agree that it was mostly straightforward (and very enjoyable) but we got stuck in a LOOP in the NW corner with that, DEFIANCE and AWESOME taking a long time to drop, taking us out to an over par 14:13. Thanks, Cedric and Hurley.
Not bad, but my final two clues combined to snuff out my recent purple patch (such as it was) over the past 3-4 days. The doors to the SCC had only just opened when I embarked on _A_T _I_E and A_E_O_E, but my preferred seats were snaffled up long before I was permitted to enter. Those two clues took a total of 12 minutes to solve and I crossed the line after a rather disappointing 33 minutes in the end.
I’m sure that our faster solvers also get stuck trawling for their final solution or two from time to time, but only for a maximum of only 30 seconds to a minute it seems. How come? Why not for 5-10 minutes like those of us in the slow lane?
Many thanks to Cedric and Hurley.
That is my question too. Well, one of my questions. I’ve been making an effort to (1) avoid alphabet trawls by stopping and thinking harder, and (2) run alphabet trawls faster. I think it’s helping some.
Whether I qualify as a faster solver after yesterday’s 8mins and today’s 7mins is your call but …
– Monday 6mins spent on Oink’s LAGOON/MODI/INCITE taking it out to 14mins
– Tuesday 20mins spent on Joker’s ARTERY/RUNNER taking it out to 45mins
13:00. AFRESH, SILLY, and STARTER were favourites.
This was a fair QC by Hurley. The 4-part clue for awesome was my main blocker but it was good to tackle it. Thanks!
7:17
No issues with this somewhat gentle puzzle. Held up at the end slightly coming up with STARTER (!) and juggling the letters correctly for DISARRAY.
Thanks for the entertaining write-up, Cedric, and for the puzzle, Hurley
It all went very smoothly until it didn’t, as so often happens. For some reason I got stuck on the southeast corner, with STARTER my last in. I still have difficulty seeing START for “lead time”, ha! because that’s not it of course — thank you for the blog. 18:04 to solve it, with the final seven minutes spent on the last two or three. SPECULATE my favorite. Is there anyone who doesn’t have that relative who is expected to be late?
Thanks to Hurley and Cedric.
Breeze-blocked on 14a Afresh. Had AFR and it took 15d to get me through. Lots of fund clues elsewhere!
NHO ADHERENT as meaning a person who’s a supporter … thought it simply meant something sticky! Learnt something new today! Agree re irritatating use of ‘ yourself’ instead of you. See also my young hairdresser who told me yesterday that my haircut was with ‘myself’ today. Gah!
You get people saying they are an “adherent of yoga” or some such i.e. it is a regime they stick to. Probably also applies to the Atkins Diet etc.
12:29 to go from TACT to AWESOME, which also earned my COD award once I finally unravelled the parsing.
Thanks to Cedric and Hurley.
21:11 to unravel Hurley’s latest offering. AFRESH and STARTER last in. An entertaining offering, I thought.
15 minutes with no mistakes. Only had to get the tippex out once! A fun fair puzzle with no unheard of/unknown clues or answers.
Mispronunciation on radio/tv is a pain but not as much as starting a written or verbal sentence with the word “So”! I immediately turn off or scroll on if it enters my orbit.
Thank you Hurley and Cedric
14:23
18.50 Very late to this. Mostly quite gentle but completely breeze-blocked by AFRESH and STARTER. Thanks Cedric and Hurley.
Very late to finish. I was stuck in the SE yesterday and even a couple of later visits didn’t help. Then this afternoon I found time for another go and, once YARN broke the logjam, the other four fell into place. Just shows it’s worth persevering (if one can be bothered).
Thanks as always to Hurley and Cedric.